One of the most cold-blooded murders of recent years, and one
which has shocked the entire section of Middle Tennessee, was that of Archie B. WOOD,
police sergeant of Nashville and known to friends in this county. The officer was
shot and instantly killed while standing on the running-board of an automobile said to
have been stolen by four boys who had been arrested by the city official, and who had them
in charge enroute to police headquarters. Harry MEADOWS, 17, and John W. DOUGLAS,
17, two of the four boys under arrest, have confessed to firing one shot each into the
body of the officer. James MCGEE, 15, and Tom MURRAY, 16, alleged accomplices, deny
firing pistols in their possession when the fatal shots were fired.
MEADORS, the first to confess the crime, said that he first
struck the officer on the head with his pistol and then fired a shot into Sergeant WOOD's
abdomen; and that DOUGLAS fired a second later, the wounded man falling from the speeding
machine. He died a few minutes later at a hospital, having never regained
consciousness.
The scene of the tragedy was on the public square in Nashville,
near the east entrance to the street railway transfer station. The arrest had been
made at Sixth and Demonbreun streets, the officer directing the driver to proceed to
police headquarters.
After the fatal shooting, the driver of the death car, Tom
MURRAY, speeded the machine out Third avenue until flight was blocked by a switch engine
on the Nashville terminal tracks. Abandoning the car, the boys made their way to the
vicinity of the Tennessee Industrial School, where all had been former students, and
remained in hiding until Thursday night when they boarded a train in the direction of
Chattanooga.
The Nashville policemen were notified by a former fellow-student
of the youth, and MEADORS was captured at Murfreesboro after the latter officers had
notified the Rutherford County authorities. His three companions made their escape
from the train, again boarding it enroute to Tullahoma. Nashville officers later
captured them in Tullahoma and they were returned to Nashville and placed in the Davidson
County jail. Afterwards, they were taken to the state penitentiary for safe keeping.
It is understood the prosecution will plead for the electrocution
of all implicated in the crime. According to a state law, their youthful age
prohibits a penitentiary sentence although not affecting a death sentence.
The four boys are citizens of Memphis, where they are said to
have had police records in connection with the theft of automobiles.

(Note from Vanessa: The two spellings of Harry Meadows/Meadors were in the original
article.)